Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han
There seem to be equal numbers of Japanese and American members here this morning. It is a really historical event to see you all together in such a harmonious gathering. Only 45 years ago today, war was initiated between Japan and the United States. This question is for all of you: Are Japanese members absolutely necessary in the Unification Church? How about you Japanese members-do you think the American members are absolutely necessary? Well, what do you think? Yes, of course they are.
What kind of frontier or battle line are we talking about today in our title? Is it a military battle line between America and Russia? No, I am talking here about the division between selfishness and unselfishness. It is the confrontation between good and evil-or, on a horizontal level, good people versus bad people. Good people are the faithful ones who have become one with goodness, and evil people are those who have become very close to evil. From the vertical point of view, it is a battle between God and Satan.
Man's mind and body, whether he is aware of it or not, are separated and in conflict on the horizontal level. Husband and wife are also separated. The vertical relationship between parents and children is one of separation as well. In each race there are different factions and groups, and on an even larger scale there is no unity on the national level. Now we see the world itself divided between advocates of materialistic communism and believers in God. It is easy to see the two clearly divided groups on the horizontal level-the free world and the communist world. But people fail to see for the most part that there is an equally intense war on the vertical plane between God and all the forces that oppose Him.
What do we achieve through conflict? History shows that by fighting and struggling, the stronger power absorbs the weaker and some sort of unity comes about. We can look at four elements: goodness and good people, and evil and evil people. By fighting and confrontation, the strongest among these will eventually absorb the weaker ones. The philosophical basis for the free world is spirituality or idealism, whereas the communists stand on the ground of materialism. These are incompatible philosophies which must confront each other and they are doing that now.
Which of the two views is correct? Which is primary- the material or the spiritual world? An individual attains unity when his body is centered on his mind. This is the Principle. Therefore the free world should be the center and absorb the communist world. But we see a different reality today because communists are working hard to unify the world, centering on their ideals, while the free world is not even thinking about global unity. Thus we see a perplexing situation, in which communism is well established and methodically moving in a sure direction, while the free world is almost like a satellite revolving around and making no determined effort to absorb others. From this viewpoint, it is clear that we must form a strong entity centering on a spiritual ideal to absorb the communist world.
This is only on the horizontal level, but we see similar things happening vertically. For instance, all religions are divided and even in conflict. No two are truly united. If Christianity is the mainstream religion, then it should be absorbing all the scattered, smaller religions. But is this happening now? Do you think that goodness should absorb evil, or should it be the other way around? We can clearly understand Christianity's role today. But what is actually happening is that the religion of Christianity in general has become virtually spiritless, powerless and numb. With no awareness of their God-given mission, their spirit and influence have been steadily dwindling. Meanwhile those who represent a lesser goodness or even evil seem to be stronger and gathering momentum. That is not at all a comfortable thing to observe and the world is facing a very important, critical situation.
The same situation exists on the vertical plane as well. We must understand that there is alarming confusion within the spiritual world because Satan is still running rampant, exerting strong influence over people who are more evil than good. Vertically, goodness has less influence than might be expected. The balance is truly at the dangerous point now. The left side is coming closer and getting the better of the right side, which is clearly the wrong order.
Who will take responsibility for this? Who will say, "It is my mission to set it right"? Can God take responsibility for it? Of course, God has been doing that for many years, but even almighty God cannot do anything without a good foundation on earth. Heaven is our destination, but we can only enter heaven after defeating evil on earth and in the spirit world. That is our formula. God knows this, of course, and so do good people. Satan and evil people also know this rule. With whom does the responsibility lie? You can see clearly why I said today that we are standing and fighting on the last battle line of history. If we look back at human history, we can see that there have been many wars and many different civilizations, but there has been nothing like we see today. This is the last battle line on the cosmic level.
God, our Father, is extremely serious looking at this critical situation. Would God say, "Since I love you, My sons and daughters, you should take it easy, have a comfortable life and be happy"? Can He say that to His loving people? In an ideal world, yes, but in this critical situation He cannot. Would God say, "Now that you're blessed and have spent many long years working hard, you should forget all about the war between good and evil"? Would He say that. Could He say that?
Nobody can be comfortable when they are fighting a war and say with certainty, "We're going to win." People feel they are in a critical situation every moment. You might crush the enemy with the right move but if you make one wrong move, the enemy can get the better of you, even if you are in the position of goodness. So for the sake of humankind, we can't think now about whether or not we are comfortable or whether or not we are working too hard, or whether somebody has a problem, whether somebody is happy or not. Those concerns are not primary now. The crucial question now is, "Will the side of goodness win so that the whole world can benefit?" For the soldier standing on the front line whatever he hears, says, smells, or touches-whatever he does-he thinks about one thing: "Does this help win the victory?" His mission is always the critical center of his thinking.
Does this just apply to men because men are soldiers and fighters, or are women included, too'? How about older people? Are young people the only fighters and older people not capable? Old or young, man or woman, everyone in the world is involved in this spiritual war. If there is one best location from which to wage the battle, shouldn't everybody go there? Where is that one place on earth where the spirit world will help all the good people of the physical world? The Unification Church is the one place about which all the good spirits say, "Go there. That is the place to win the victory!"
The Unification Church has a very clear purpose. Even a first-day member knows it: we must bring the world into unity. In order to bring everything into unity, however, we must have a center. What should be our center? True Parents are the point at which the vertical axis of the heart of God-the spiritual axis-connects with the physical axis. You cannot dispense with this connecting point of the True Parents. There is conflict, however, because other parents exist. Because of fallen parents, fallen people multiplied evil, resulting in a world that is false. In order to change what is false, the truth must come. True Parents, then, seek to change the false children into good or true children and that is the last thing Satan wants. He will make people so afraid of that, they will cling and do everything to stop their children from going to the True Parents.
Reverend Moon has become famous. More famous than President Reagan? How about Russia's Mr. Gorbachev? The Reagan Administration is in peril now. It would be very easy for it to crumble, and the newspapers are making a lot of noise. The communist world is in just as much turmoil. They are saying, "We should adjust our communism and gradually take after the free world's economic style." What is happening to both sides is really desirable, in a way. From whose point of view is it desirable-the world's, or America's, or God's? Yes, from God's and the Unification Church's point of view. Can you see how close we are to the destination, the terminal point?
When the world situation is like this, what will the Unification Church do? Of course, we will move forward but are we going to achieve an individual goal, a family goal, a national goal or a world goal? We are working for God's world goal. But all of you have lived only individual lives so far. An individual might say, "This is my way of life, I don't want to change it. I will remain on the individual level." Can you say that? Americans often fall into this individualistic way of thinking.
Reverend Moon has lived his whole life away from the crowded highway, climbing a steep ladder all the way to the top. Does anybody enjoy doing that? It is very tiring and even Reverend Moon doesn't like it, but without going that way, the goal cannot be reached. We are not talking about climbing just in the summertime when you wear light clothes, but also in the winter when you have to wear thermal underwear, trousers, coat and boots. If you were climbing a ladder, would you climb a little at a time, taking only a few steps a day? Or would you just climb all the way up, using all your strength? In fact, even though it might be freezing weather, I would take off every heavy and then, as light as possible, scramble up very fast. I have lived my whole life this way. Which would you prefer-climbing slowly or quickly? You might say, "Does Father really mean that we should take off everything except maybe briefs or pants to become as light as possible and then climb up at top speed?"
If you are in an actual war, the only thing you think about is how to survive and win. In order to do that, you quickly learn that you can do all kinds of things which, in everyday life, you would have thought impossible. You just do them. This is how people behave under wartime conditions. Would you want to be comfortable in the moment and live another day or two, and then be killed? Someone might protest, "What's wrong with the world? Where is the war? That's just what the Unification Church says. Why don't you take it easy and live like you always used to live?" Would you agree with him?
How are we going to win this war? You know how people tried to throw me out of this country but they were unsuccessful. The newspapers and influential groups attacked me, finally sending me to prison thinking that would be the end of the Unification Church. Did the Unification Church come to an end? Danbury was a horizontal turning point. From that point on, there was only one place to go, which was up. You look at the last couple of years since the time of Danbury. Has the Unification Church declined or developed'? It went up at a sharp angle, didn't it?
Until I returned here two weeks ago, what were you doing? You worked very hard, didn't you, to get ten million signatures of support for CAUSA's ideals? Did you ever think before you started that you could achieve the goal so quickly? Did you even believe you could get ten million signatures? When the goal of ten million people was announced, almost everybody was skeptical, but did you do it successfully or not? You did it. You went out and touched the American people. You did not know what was going to happen, but you did it because you wanted to reclaim this country for God. But now do you say, "That is all I can do. That's the limit"? Are you prepared to go out and do more?
Now that you've done it, shall we take a rest? Since the Reagan Administration is declining and the Gorbachev Administration is going down, shall we go down also? We must shoot up strongly. Imagine you are a boxing champion in the ring and your opponent is getting weak. What do you do? Don't you just strike out with great force and knock him out? You don't think about it-your fist just flies into his face.
There has never been a group like the Unification Church in the entire history of man. Only forty years ago, the Japanese and Americans were fighting to the bitter end. Today Reverend Moon has brought representatives of those two nations together and each of them is trying to care for the other more than their own country. They are fighting together for the common cause-the world- with all their might. Harder than the Japanese ever fought against the Americans and vice versa, we're fighting together against our common, invisible enemy. Think about it. Two of the strongest armies in the world were fighting each other, but now the same nations are united together against the common enemy. What could be more powerful?
How is it that so many people around the world have tried to persecute and chase away Reverend Moon for many years, but nothing has ever stopped him? In fact, he is only getting stronger, whereas everybody who was once strong against the Unification Church is losing strength. Mr. Reagan is losing strength, Mr. Gorbachev is losing strength, the entire secular world is losing strength. But Reverend Moon, whom they wished would decline, is clearly going up. Why? Not only is Reverend Moon rising up but more and more people are tagging along after our movement. There are millions of members of VOC, supporters of CAUSA, and thousands of supportive ministers. Imagine: at one time all of Christianity went against Reverend Moon for being a "heretic," but now many Christian leaders are lining up in support. All America tried to bring me down, but now more and more Americans are supporting me.
Somehow I have steered the Unification Church through all this suffering. You might wonder why a smart person would make so many enemies and never say anything in retaliation. I just minded my own business. Even though many people sprang up to oppose me, I have no enemy. It was like a lot of dogs barking at a stranger. Once the stranger is gone, they all bark at each other. Many groups and individuals really barked at me in the past, but now they are barking at each other. No matter how much noise they made, I never budged. You know what is happening today'? Many ministers are saying with wide-eyed innocence, "I didn't oppose you, Reverend Moon."
Many non-Unification Church members are watching me as if with binoculars and wondering what I am going to do next. Then when I do something, they say, "That's the best thing he could ever do!" In that way the world is much more sensitive to me than the Unification Church members. People from outside the church are smiling and applauding me, but Moonies are making faces and saying, "Oh, Father, must I sacrifice again?" Many scholarly people believe our movement has a lot of opportunity to rise in the world so they are really interested in watching it. But people within the Unification Church rarely think of themselves that way. They think, "I'm such a miserable person and I'm getting old." When a man is determined to run, his head goes first. But with Unification Church members, the stomach runs first! It's true!
Imagine if it was announced that Reverend Moon was scheduled to speak at a certain place on such and such a date, how many people would gather there? The Bible has already warned us that the first will be last and the last will be first. That seems to be coming true now. The people in the outside world are eager to run, whereas many Unification Church members are lagging behind.
Until now, there were many frontiers and front lines of different kinds. Who fought on the front lines of the Unification Church war? It was Father. Now I am saying that this is the last frontier or battle line. But the last battle line is not just one short line; it is a long line composed of the last individual front line, the last family front line, the last racial, national, world and universal front lines. On all levels, there is a front line and this is the last one because after this victory, there will probably be no war.
As a marathon runner approaches the goal, he doesn't need to think about anything except running and doing his best. He doesn't Know what he's passing, in what condition he's in. He doesn't care about anything except reaching the goal, which he knows is getting closer all the time. What are you doing? Is Father the runner and you are just spectators?
When I come and speak to you, you are kind of wary and waiting for what I might tell you to do. When war happens in a country, the one who says, "I don't want to be a soldier," has no opportunity in those times. But the one who says, "I want to be on the front line and I will be the winner," has all the opportunity. In the ranks of the officers, the one who achieves the biggest victory will be the four-star general and the marshal, isn't that true? What kind of rank would you be content to have in this spiritual war? Are you just watching other people fight or doing the fighting yourself? Are you going to lead the soldiers yourself or will you be one of the soldiers who just follows? In the past, America tried to snipe at Father. They aimed all sorts of accusations at me and not at Unification Church members. What happened? Was I defeated or did I overcome? All that matters now is that they attacked me with all their might and I became a winner.
When I go to Korea, the government people individually hail and support me, but they are wary of what I might do next. They watch me carefully because they are impressed and kind of fearful. The same thing happens in Japan. They are not afraid that I will harm them but they are watching because I have already achieved so much. Now that I have returned to America, people here are also watching me, wondering, "What is Reverend Moon doing now? What is he going to do next?" We are not fighting with weapons, but we are bringing one person after another over to our side.
The direction that we will pursue has become clear to us, hasn't it? Now that it has, you Americans don't need the Japanese members anymore, do you? You don't need Father anymore, do you? Aren't you independent? Don't the Japanese members make too much trouble for you? The American people want everyone to be just like them. Although they may not like me, God likes me. And you Japanese members have to stay here. God said it. How about that?
If you were God Himself, what would you need in the spiritual battle: a general or a soldier? They are both fighters, but what is the difference? The general always goes ahead as a leader and is himself a target, whereas a soldier doesn't lead the way or go out in front. So when you are on the front line of the dispensation, which would you like to be-just a soldier or a general?
We must brace ourselves, conscious that in the next three to seven years, the dispensation must come to a victorious fulfillment. If you take a high vantage point on the world situation this is very plain to see. All the signs show that the world will now decline slowly whereas for us, victory is within range in three years, depending on how hard we work. Do you know that? This is not only subjective thinking but if you look objectively, all the signs show that this could easily come about.
What is another difference between the soldier and the general? The general shouts out and gives commands to the rest of the troops who are following him. How about you? Do you have soldiers too? Every one of you wants to be a general in this spiritual battle, don't you? To do that, you have to obtain followers, or soldiers. Then you have to feed them, clothe them, and teach them. Do you have the kind of guts necessary to do that? This is a very practical question. Unless we are able to lead our followers here in America, our position cannot be successful. This is why we have planned to instruct seven thousand ministers by bringing them back to Korea, showing them God's dispensation. We are doing that even today-a group of ministers is in Korea right now. Thousands of people have already gone there, and that will continue.
Do you think Unification Church members can match the abilities of these ministers? No, the ministers are much more able and trained people. That is why I am shaking up all the Unification Church members and saying: Beware. Put yourself in Father's position and consider whether you would try to win the victory through the Unification Church members or through the ministers. If you do not have ability and you are not up to the standard, what can I do'? Father looks at nothing but the victory.
Do you really feel that the spiritual war we are in and the front line we are forming now is the last front line, and that there won't be any more battles after winning this victory? Ten million individuals in America signed in support of the CAUSA goals, but they also have families. Probably the wife or husband also agrees. Then they also have their children. Maybe a couple of children are still living with the parents, so we could say that there are perhaps four people per signature, on average. That means forty million people are on the side of goodness rather than on the evil side. Our function, our task, is to take care of them and teach them how to serve the purpose of God. That is what we mean by "digesting." Can we do that?
This is the first Sunday since I have returned from Korea and it is the first Sunday of December. Should I begin this month by issuing once again the direction to go out? Are you thinking how miserable you are? This victory is not just something the Unification Church wants to gain. Everything in the universe wants it, even the smallest pebbles. The animals and all things-minerals, water, air-want to see this one great victory of God. The last opportunity is upon us and we have to win. In fact, I see next year, 1987, as the most crucial and important year in which we must harvest many smaller victories or else we will not have enough power to achieve the final victory.
We all feel that without the Unification movement America can never be rescued. Each of us knows that there is no other way to bring America over to the side of goodness. Fifteen years ago I spoke in this country and said that America would soon be coming into very difficult times. I said that America would perish if something was not done. Unification Church members believed me on a certain level, but couldn't really understand. They looked around and everything seemed to be going all right, according to the good old "American way." There was no better way in the world, they thought, so they wondered, "Father, what are you talking about? America won't really perish." However, only fifteen years later, everybody is saying, yes, America really is falling and about to perish, just like Father predicted. It is not only we who feel that but also many others, including retired military leaders, as well as renown scholars. Such people are coming and listening to CAUSA lectures and after having heard them, they shout out, "Hurray, America has hope!"
The Fifteenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences was recently convened, during which participating scholars agreed that Reverend Moon's teaching is the only way for the world to go. They felt very honored just to catch a glimpse of Reverend Moon. But today, there are Unification Church members living close to Father and seeing me here every Sunday who don't feel a fraction of the strong feeling those scholars exhibited. This is not right. Are you really looking forward to victory? Then you will look forward to seeing Father as a most precious opportunity.
Are you going to fight this spiritual war or not? Once you make up your mind, you can do anything. If you are truly determined, it is time for me to rest awhile. When I started going this path, I was alone with no friend, no teacher, nobody I could share with. The environment, everything, was opposing me. Today, however, you have many friends and you have True Parents. When you have a difficult problem, you can come to me and ask how to win. You have everything you need.
I came here for the sake of this country, sacrificing my own country. This is not my home but I have been working hard here. Compared to your standard until now, I have been working harder, but from now on, you should work harder than I. This is your mission. You young people are some of the most fortunate ones who have managed to escape the deadly snare of drugs. So many young people are using drugs in this country. America may have the greatest defense arsenal in the world, but can they do anything about one drug addict? No. Only God's power through the Unification Church can change that helpless state of affairs.
Korea's political situation is at a desperate point right now, much worse than it is here. You don't know how bad it is. Everybody wonders how Korea can still stand, not knowing that God is supporting it in an invisible way. When I left Korea recently, many informed people said, "Reverend Moon, you know how critical Korea's situation is, how much she needs you. Must you go back to America?" They did not realize that Father has to come here not just for the sake of America, but for the sake of the world.
So on this last frontier should we move forward only during the daytime? We have to occupy field after field, higher ground after higher ground. No place should be without a Unification Church center. Our movement should be everywhere. We have to thrust ourselves into every endeavor and become masters in each field. Do you understand? We cannot afford to even think about losing at this point. We have to be saturated with the idea of victory. Until now, Father has been doing almost everything and we are indeed on very high ground today. But from now on, you have to work just as hard as Father, if not harder, or else America will have no hope. That is the only way we can restore America-we have to do it ourselves.
There are people in Congress who are supportive of the Unification Church, aware that our work is a good influence for America. Their numbers will grow day by day. Such supporters are not our members - they are also in the media, the academic community, and in every field. They understand the meaning of the Unification Church even more clearly than many of you. You must challenge them and you can never be outdone by them. It should be out of the question. You must be the forerunners. That is the determination we must have this morning.
Father gave everything he had for the sake of this country and the world, didn't he? Likewise, you have to put everything you have on the line for the same purpose. Then you can say, "God, I have worked just like Father did." But you can only say that after you have done it. When we have that kind of strong determination, the victory will be ours. We have to act to win the victory, not just think about it. Are we going to fight this war and win the victory or not? Those who are determined to do that, raise your hands. Thank you. Let us pray.
